The Croods (2013)

Movie Info

A whole new world! (minus the flying carpet)

The Croods live a sheltered life.  They only leave the confines of their cave when they need food and this is how they survive.  When Grug finds his daughter Eep dreams of more, he tries to discourage it…though the appearance of a young man named Guy who has mastered fire reignites the urge.  Danger is coming for the Croods, and their world is about to change.  A series of earthquake is destroying the land and when the Croods’ cave is destroyed, they find themselves out in the world for the first time…and Grug learns that his family might have to turn to Guy for help.

Get down on the bones!

Directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, The Croods was a 3D animated adventure produced by DreamWorks Animation.  In development hell for years, the movie was met by strong box-office sales and positive reviews.  The Croods received a surprising Best Animated Feature nomination knocking out a number of other popular contenders including Monsters University.

The Croods isn’t my favorite type of animated feature though it does have a lot of heart.  The film never finds a real direction for me and has too many tangents to really tell a cohesive story.

This film is supposed to be about me!!!

I don’t know what The Croods is really about.  It seems (especially from the marketing) to be about Eep and her to desire to live beyond the cave.  The movie kind of loses the Eep angle through the middle of the movie and becomes this competition between Guy and Grug.  Add in a wife, baby, son, and mother-in-law, and you have way too many characters…it might have been a nice story if it was just Grug and Eep surviving alone.  Grug almost becomes a Homer Simpson character that doesn’t think before he acts…it doesn’t work.  I wish The Croods had picked a theme and stuck with it.

Like many of these popular animated features, The Croods does bank on some big names.  You get Nicolas Cage as the patriarch and sparring with Ryan Reynolds…two actors I’m not huge fans of.  The likeable Emma Stone plays Eep which makes me wish the story had really focused on her.  Catherine Keener plays the mother Ugga with her mother played by Cloris Leachmen…a good cast feels a bit wasted.

I will use my Street Fighter moves on you!!!

The Croods is a strong, visual movie.  It doesn’t go for realism, but they didn’t have the Croods meeting dinosaurs.  The animal designs are cool but I wish they had been even more fantastic if they were going to make up animals for them to meet…if not, I’d rather have them stick to a more Ice Age style of creature that might actually exist.

The Croods isn’t bad, but it isn’t great.  Despite this, the success means more Croods for everyone.  There is already a plan for a sequel and there is an option to do a TV series.  My opinion is skip The Croods and just sit back and enjoy old episodes of The Flintstones.

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